The Invisible Girl
by Zinnith
Summary: Zoe wonders why King won't look at her anymore. Takes place right after Blade:Trinity. AbbyKing (blink and you'll miss it)
1. Zoe

**A/N: All right, I did _not_ need another obsession, but after watching _Blade:Trinity_ last weekend, I found myself deeply in love with Hannibal King. So I'm taking a tentative little step out of my beloved HP-fandom to try my hand at vampires.**

**I don't live in USA, and English is not my first language. Please inform me of any embarrassing mistakes I might have made.**

**King, Zoe, Abby and Caulder doesn't belong to me. Kate and Spider does.**

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**The Invisible Girl **

**Chapter 1: Zoe**

King won't look at Zoe anymore. She doesn't know _why_, but she knows _when_ he stopped. When the Gnome king came and took her away. The Gnome king brought her to a room, where King was kneeling on the floor. The mean vampire lady whispered something in his ear that Zoe couldn't hear. King's eyes grew wide and scared, and that was the last time he looked at Zoe.

She misses it, because King always looked _at_ her instead of past her. Sometimes, Zoe feels invisible. It's like people forget that she's there. It's almost like they _want_ to forget that she's there. But King never did that. He used to lift her up and tickle her, and watch Saturday-morning cartoons with her, and teach her how to play cards, and talk to her. He's stopped doing that. He only talks to Abby now, and Kate and Caulder and Spider.

Kate, the doctor lady who walks with a crutch sometimes, is always nice to Zoe, but Zoe still gets the feeling that Kate doesn't really like her. But then again, sometimes Zoe thinks that Kate doesn't like _anyone_. She calls King and Abby 'children', like being a child would be the same thing as being stupid. Zoe asked Abby about it once, and Abby answered that Kate used to hunt vampires when she was young, but now she's old and can't do it anymore. Then Abby told Zoe not to tell Kate she said that.

Caulder is nice too, but he's one of those people who doesn't seem to see Zoe. She's invisible around him. Caulder and Kate argue a lot, but Zoe never understands what they argue about, because they use so difficult words. Caulder smells like cigarette smoke and chemicals, and he always forgets where he last left his glasses.

Spider's name isn't really Spider, but everyone calls him Spider, because his arms and legs are so long, and his boots has spiders' webs painted on them. Kate says he's a nuisance. Zoe likes Spider. He lets her play his videogames. They are all racing games, and Abby says that he drives real cars like he was playing a racing game. Spider has long black hair and dirt under his fingernails, and he's always fixing things and listens to noisy music.

Zoe misses the Honeycomb, but they can't live there anymore. They live in an old office building now. There are a lot of long corridors, and the lights keeps breaking so it's always dark. The walls are the same colour as old cheese, and there are damp spots on the ceilings. On the floors they don't use, everything smells like dust and mould. The only thing Zoe likes is the big flat roof, where she can stand and look down at the things happening far below.

Nothing is good since they moved from the Honeycomb. Abby cries when she thinks no one can hear. She cries at night, and in the shower. Zoe doesn't know if King cries, but she doesn't think so. King and Abby argue a lot. They're not arguing like Kate and Caulder does. Zoe knows that Kate and Caulder are friends even when they're mad at each other. She wonders if King and Abby have stopped being friends. Before mommy died, Abby would be mad at King, and King would say something that made Abby smile, and then she would not be mad anymore. King doesn't make Abby smile now. He only makes her angry. Zoe doesn't like when people are mad at each other. Then she's almost happy to be invisible.

Zoe does her best not to be in the way, and to be helpful. She runs errands for Kate, because Kate's legs hurts when she's walking in stairs and the elevator is always broken. When Caulder cooks, Zoe eats without complaining, even though he cooks weird things that look like slime. She reads the Oz-stories by herself when Abby doesn't have time to read for her, and she watches the Saturday-morning cartoons with the volume turned down low so she won't disturb Kate and Spider who likes to sleep late in the mornings. But Zoe still wishes that King would watch cartoons with her like he used to do when they lived at the Honeycomb.

She wants to be grown-up, so she could understand things better. No one bothers to explain anything to her, and she's tired of guessing. When she asked Abby why King won't speak to her anymore, Abby just sighed and told her that it wasn't Zoe's fault. But if it isn't Zoe's fault, then who's fault is it? Zoe thinks that it must be her fault; because King stopped looking at her after the Gnome king came and killed mommy and took her away. Maybe King is angry because she didn't hide better? Both Abby and Kate has told Zoe that it wasn't her fault that mommy is dead, that it was the Gnome king, the one the grown-ups call Drake, that killed mommy. Zoe doesn't know what to think. King must have a reason not to speak to her.

Right now, Abby is mad at King. She doesn't say anything, but Zoe knows that she is, because she slams the cupboard-doors in the kitchen, and her back looks angry. It's morning and Zoe is eating cereal and drinking chocolate milk that mommy wouldn't let her have, because it's bad for the teeth. Abby lets her have chocolate milk, because Abby likes chocolate too, but she always makes Zoe brush her teeth afterwards.

King is leaning against the counter. He's drinking coffee, and he has a black eye and a band-aid on his forehead. King and Abby were out hunting last night, and Zoe thinks something bad happened. She woke up when they got back. Abby was screaming at King, and Spider was saying a lot of ugly words, and Kate was mad at King too and said that he was not making her job any easier.

Zoe crept out of bed and listened at the crack of her bedroom door, so that no one would know that she was awake. She couldn't make out everything they said, but she heard one thing Abby said to King. Abby said: "Are you _trying_ to get yourself killed?"

No one is screaming this morning, they are just angry. Zoe wonders what happened last night, but she doesn't dare to ask. She is afraid that if she does, they will be angry with her too. She doesn't like when people are mad in the morning, because then they will be mad all day, and King will go out without telling them where and then he will come home and smell like beer, and Abby will go down to the shooting range in the cellar and practice with her bow until she breaks the target and Spider gets angry because he has to fix it again.

Zoe wonders if King is really trying to get killed. He seems to get hurt more now than he was before. He has always bruises and scrapes, and he picks at his scabs so they start bleeding again and again. Zoe doesn't want King to die, like mommy and Dex and Hedges did. She misses them so much, and she would miss King, even if he won't speak to her. Maybe it's her fault if King wants to die too? There is a large knot in her stomach that tightens when she thinks about that.

Zoe takes her glass and her bowl to the counter, and cleans them off, and then she leaves to go and brush her teeth. King and Abby doesn't notice. Zoe is invisible again. She really really wants King to start looking at her again, because then she would not feel so invisible anymore.

**What do you think? Like it? Hate it? Worth to keep writing on? Constructive criticism is always welcome! All criticism is welcome, except flames, which will be forwarded to King, who won't give a damn.**


	2. King

**Wow, someone liked my story! Thanks for reviewing! Here's some King POV for I-love-Azrael and roguey, and some more Abby/King for Quicksilver19 (I'm afraid it's not the kind of A/K you wanted though...) ChaiGrl; hope you like this direction! Hermione-Potter-McTaggart; the sadness continues. **

**Hope you all like this next part. I've got the rest of the story laid out pretty well, but I'm always open to suggestions.**

**The rating is changed to T, because of King's bad mouth. **

**Chapter summary: A trip inside the mind of Hannibal King, post-Trinity. Please fasten your seatbelts, and don't feed the demons.**

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**Chapter 2: King**

King likes to name things. People, weapons, places. The Talos residence, he's dubbed 'that fucking hellhole' because that's what it felt like. The place in the harbour where Abby brought him after she rescued him, he called 'the Honeycomb' because of all the passages, the valves and the secluded corners that gave it the look and the feel of a beehive.

He hasn't found a good name for the new place yet, at least not one he wants to share. In his mind, the abandoned office-building is 'the pit of misery', but he's not telling anyone. He thinks Kate might take offence. After all, she and Caulder have fixed it up right good. And the more King thinks about it, the more does he believe that _anywhere_ would be a pit of misery right now.

He had thought he was long past the stage of screaming nightmares, but it turns out he was wrong. He hardly dares to close his eyes from fear of finding himself back at the Honeycomb, limbs heavy from painkillers, dull throbbing ache in his shoulder, hard hand closing over his mouth.

King never wants to sleep again.

Well, obviously he _has_ to be sleeping, because he's still functioning pretty well. He just can't remember when he does it. He's suspected for a while that Kate slips him sleeping pills, but he can't prove it, and he's sure as hell not going to confront her. Kate's been chewing him out one time too many since they got here. It's got to be a hobby of hers.

King has decided that he doesn't like Kate that much. Well, sure, he was impressed in the beginning, because she's been a Nightstalker since, like, _forever_. She even used to work with Abby's father back in the day. Before Blade entered the stage, Dr Kate Dawson was _the_ hunter, the one vamps told stories about to scare each other shitless.

Kate's old now, and King finds it disturbing as hell, though he's not entirely sure why. Maybe it's the fact that Kate is the only hunter King knows of, other than Abe Whistler, who's reached the age of fifty. The retirement-plan for this occupation sucks.

King has resigned himself to the fact that he'll probably die young, and after meeting Kate, he's not so sure it's a bad thing. She limps, not from old battle wounds, like King thought when her first met her, but from arthritis. She's got asthma and diabetes and takes more medication than King likes to think about. Everything about Kate screams frustration and disappointment. King thinks that if this is where a lifetime of hunting leaves you, maybe dying along the way is an alternative to consider.

Kate is also far too concerned about other people's business. At least Abby seems to have found a kindred spirit. It's bad enough to have one of them at his throat, but lately they've started to gang up on him.

Like yesterday. Or rather; early this morning. King and Abby took out a nest downtown, just a routine job. So, they'd done a sloppy stakeout. Whatever. So, there were a couple of more vamps than they expected. No problem, they're professionals. They know how to deal with surprises. Besides, it's not like he's never taken a beating before. All right, so he was out for a while, no big deal. Abby could handle the remaining vamps just fine. Black eye, couple of bruises, a few minor scrapes. He's had worse.

Abby going into hysterics when they got back was not part of his plan for the evening. She even screamed: "Are you _trying_ to get yourself killed?" at the top of her voice, and Kate stood besides her, nodding in that officious way King hates. Spider was pretty pissed too, but King figured it was mostly beginners' nerves.

King knows better than to start a shouting match with Abby, and he couldn't think of anything clever to say anyway, so he just ignored them and went to bed, so right now, Abby seems to want to bite his head off. He can't see any chances of kissing and making up in the near future. Actually, it was a while since there was any making up at all. King doesn't know when it happened, but he always seems to be at odds with Abby these days, and he doesn't like it. It reminds him of the beginning, when he was new at the Honeycomb and couldn't seem to do anything right in Abby's eyes.

He sips at his coffee and grimaces slightly as the hot liquid touches the place in his mouth where he bit himself last night. One of the vamps had a real good right hand hook. Abby is putting clean dishes away, and King can see that she's just waiting to start screaming at him again. He hopes that she'll at least wait until Zoe's finished with her breakfast. The kid doesn't deserve this.

King can't bring himself to look Zoe in the eyes any more. He still remembers the last time he did, how Danica bent down and whispered in his ears, told him in detail what she would do to him if he didn't tell her about the Daystar. Turn him again. Leave him to starve, and then, just when he was on the verge of going insane with thirst, give him Zoe to feed on.

Zoe heard nothing of it, she couldn't have heard, because her eyes were so full of trust, like she had no doubts that good old King would make everything all right again.

King can't look her in the eyes anymore, because he knows the truth, knew it even then. He wouldn't have had a choice, he couldn't have told Danica, the gutter-slut from hell, about the Daystar. He couldn't have told her, because there were far more lives in the bargain than just his and Zoe's. The only thing he could do was wait and hope for Abby and Blade to come, and try to figure out what do if they _didn't_ come. He still doesn't know what he would've done. He knows that there would be no hope for him if he were turned again. There's no way to fight the thirst.

He doubts any of the others would understand if he told them. To Abby and Kate, it's all about strength. They have everything inside their heads, they make up their minds and whatever they want to happen happens. Caulder would be interested, in a scientific way. He'd want to run tests and write articles and documentaries. Spider would just mutter something like "Tough shit, dude", and act awkward. Spider likes the excitement of the hunt, but he doesn't want to think about the consequences. Of course, no one likes to think about the consequences until they jump up and bite you in the ass.

And Zoe…Zoe can never know. Zoe is the epitome of innocence, the only thing bright and good and _pure_ in King's life. He can't remember anyone he's wanted to keep safe as much as Zoe.

Well, Abby of course, but Abby is a woman, not a child, and she doesn't need King to look after her. Abby's only child-like when she sleeps. He can lie awake for hours, just watching her sleep. She curls up around her pillow, mumbles softly, pouts like a little girl. And she hogs the covers.

Right. Keeping Zoe safe. He managed to fuck that job up all right. How much of an idiot can you be? They _knew_ Drake was on the prowl. So Abby and Blade takes off, leaving him with Sommerfield, who's blind, and Dex, who's a better driver than hunter, and Hedges, who pants his lungs out after running up the stairs. And what does Hannibal King do? He falls asleep. And then he wakes up and sees a face that shouldn't be there, _couldn't_ be there, and the only thing he can think of to say is: "Dude, you're dead."

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Sommer is dead, Dex is dead, Hedges is dead. And it doesn't matter what Abby says, or what Kate says, it still feels like his fault.

King remembers Blade's comment about 'rookies' and he thinks about Kate's endless rants about 'children' and he thinks that they're both wrong. He's not a rookie and he's not a child. He knows damned well what he's got himself into. He just wishes that he could've kept Zoe out of it. _She's_ a child, and King wants her to have the chance to _stay_ a child. Zoe doesn't need to know that one of the few adults she still has left in her life spent hours to figure out a way to kill her as quick and painless as possible, to spare her even greater pain.

King had thought he didn't know how to hate someone until he met Danica Talos. That was before he met himself.

**It is Teh Angst, yesss it is, precioussss…**

**King: "Hey Zin, wrong fandom!"**

**Zin: "Oh, sorry. ****I get confused sometimes."**

**King: "This story needs more booze. And more naked women."**

**Zin: "Yeah, right. In your dreams."**

**Reviews are the fuel that keeps my pen (or in this case; keyboard) going. **


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